Her hands shook. He could see them trembling … Or maybe his vision was wavering.
‘Mav!’
Why did she sound so far away? he wondered.
He felt more than knew he’d fallen onto his side, his head at an awkward angle, and even though he couldn’t move, he kept his eyes open and on Nina’s face. Because he didn’t want her to be scared. And through the numbness and confusion he also knew that if he died, he wanted her to be the last thing he saw in this life.
She was so beautiful.
As his blood stained the floor beneath him, he started to lose touch. Shadow was barking furiously. Nina was crying, but he suddenly couldn’t remember why, and when he tried to raise one hand to touch her face, it simply fell back to the floor with a heavy thud.
He frowned as she hurriedly removed her jacket, groaned in pain when she put her entire bodyweight on the wound.
His vision went seconds before he heard her scream. ‘We’re here! Hurry!’
‘This is the county sheriff!’ a voice called through the house.
‘We’re here! Hurry!’ Nina screamed.
Blood soaked through Mav’s shirt and squelched between her fingers. ‘Mav!’ She tried to shout his name, but it only came out a croak. ‘Mav, wake up!’
He didn’t move. He didn’t so much as flutter his eyelids.
The sound of footsteps pounding up the stairs reached her ears seconds before a swarm of armed police officers burst into the room.
‘Help me!’ Nina rasped. ‘Please! Please help me!’
‘Jesus.’ An elderly man, with a badge pinned to his shirt, dropped onto his knees beside her. ‘Mav!’ He slapped Mav’s face gently. ‘You there, son?’
Mav’s lashes fluttered.
‘He’s breathing.’
Nina felt cold and numb. It was as if every drop of blood from him leached the life out of her too. ‘Help him. Please.’
‘Paramedics are right behind me.’ He placed his hands over hers, pressed down heavily. ‘I’ve got him. You can move your hands now.’
Nina’s arms didn’t budge, and despite her best efforts she couldn’t make sense of where her arms ended and her hands began. She started crying. ‘I can’t move.’
‘That’s okay, hon. You’re just in shock.’ His voice was quiet and soothing, his big hands pressing down on hers oddly comforting. ‘We’ll hold him down together.’
‘Mav,’ she rasped.
There was no response.
Her entire body started shaking violently, but still, she couldn’t let go.
‘He’s the toughest person I know,’ the sheriff said gently.
‘Yeah.’
Nina was so focused on Mav’s face, his jaw slack, his skin leached of colour, that she barely noticed the other cops checking Alexander over, and when the paramedics hurried into the room maybe a minute later, she couldn’t feel her body at all.
‘GSW takes precedence,’ the sheriff said, his tone leaving no room for argument.
The paramedics knelt, one on either side of him. ‘We’re going to have you both move in three, two, one.’
The sheriff moved, taking Nina’s hands with his.
